NaMo tea stalls not party’s proposal, says BJP city chief

MUMBAI: The Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP) has distanced itself from one of its elected representatives’ proposal that the Mumbai civic body should allow NaMo tea stalls in the city.

A day after the BJP’s civic improvement committee chairman, Prakash Gangadhare proposed NaMo tea stalls (to be named after Prime Minister Narendra Modi) in the city, party city chief Ashish Shelar said it was not the BJP’s official initiative, but the corporator’s individual proposal.

Gangadhare had mooted this plan in the civic group leaders’ meeting on Friday and requested the civic administration to give permissions for one stall in each ward all over Mumbai by issuing licences. Gangadhare said that this would be a way t o provide employment to youth and those coming from drought-hit regions in search of employment.

However, various political parties in the civic body have opposed this move and even the ally Shiv Sena has taken it as a move to counter Shiv Vada Pav stalls in the city. Taking a dig at the Sena, Shelar said that the BJP would not be supporting any illegal activities.

“When the photographs and name of the PM is used, the proper protocol has to be followed but as it was an individual initiative, the party has no role to play in this,” he added.

Earlier, the Congress party had come up with ‘poha’ stalls in the city and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) had come up with offers of vegetables at low prices. Gangadhare however, said that they are looking at having these stalls in legal vending zones and will not promote encroachments.